Anil Bheda murder case: Wife seeks compensation

Mumbai: The wife of Anil Bheda, sole and
prime witness in the 2006 fake encounter case of Ramnarayan
Gupta, has sought compensation from the Maharashtra government
for the death of her husband.

Aruna Bheda, who had approached the High Court with a
haebas corpus (produce the person) petition after her husband
went missing from near his Navi Mumbai residence on March 13,
on Thursday sought police protection for herself and compensation
for her husband`s death.

A division bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and PD Kode
has asked her to amend her petition and include these aspects
in it. The Vashi police had on the last hearing informed the
court that Anil Bheda was kidnapped and murdered and that the
probe has been handed over to the Crime Investigation
Department (CID).

The CID today submitted an investigation report and told
the court that the prime suspect in the case has been
constantly changing his mobile number and hence has been
untraceable.

The bench has directed CID to submit further report on
September 15.

Bheda went missing just days before he was to depose in
the fake encounter case in which several policemen including
encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma are facing trial.

Bheda`s body was recovered recently from jungles of Manor
in neighbouring Thane district. He was the sole eyewitness to
the alleged fake killing.

Gupta was shot dead on November 11, 2006, in Versova, on
suspicion that he was a member of Chhota Rajan gang. A Special
Investigation Team (SIT), formed to probe the case had
arrested Sharma and 21 others.